Environmentalist, and proud

“Environmentalist” and “environmentalism” are under attack. The words; the environment is also under assault.

Hugh micro-blogged about an article published on mises.org by a rather curmudgeonly Gennady Stolyarov II:

The Disney-Pixar film WALL-E has been adoringly received by the majority of the theatergoing public. This adoration is unjustified. The film blatantly conveys environmentalist, anticapitalist, and antitechnological propaganda — and aims it at an audience of children, who still lack the critical faculties and intellectual sophistication to evaluate all relevant aspects of the issues presented.
WALL-E: Economic Ignorance and the War on Modernity

A few days ago,  Joseph Romm denied being an environmentalist when conservative columnist Tony Blankley started questioning the patriotism of all that hippie riff-raff. Romm has one weak answer to my first comment, and doesn’t answer my second:

By saying you’re not one, you treat it like a dirty word, the same way women say “I know women aren’t treated equally in our society, and I’d like that to change, but I’m not a feminist”.

It’s not a dirty word, and treating it as such hurts your allies. Please reconsider.

So the words are being attacked from all sides. But what do they actually mean? A google search provides several definitions of “environmentalist”:

• An enthusiast or advocate for protecting and nurturing the environment.
• A person who places high values on the environment.
• someone who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution
• Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the natural environment, both for its own sake as well as its importance to civilization. …
• One who works to protect the biosphere from misuse through such measures as ecosystem protection, waste reduction and pollution prevention

Most of us now know we can not survive without a healthy environment. To not put a high value on this is unpatriotic as well as misanthropic. Environmentalist have been ignored, mocked and now fought. If we deal with the attacks, we win.

The fight is Orwellian: words are the neocon’s choice weapons. They invent weasel expressions like “collateral damage”, “dual-use technology”, “weapons of mass destruction”.Words such as “sanctions” become euphemisms for “blockade”. Our minds are confused and diminished by this constant repetition of new words, non-words and weasel expressions.

When neocons try to tar our own words we must fight back, sticking to definitions and proclaiming our pride.

I am proud to be an environmentalist. I place a high value on protecting the environment for its own sake, as well as the sake of future generations.

Next time someone says they’re not an environmentalist (or a feminist), ask them what they mean, and offer the mainstream definition. Tell them you’re proud to be an environmentalist.